


Candy Cane

by melonbutterfly



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-22
Updated: 2009-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So Anton, John and Karl are terribly curious whom this mysterious person is with whom Zach spends all his time. The answer is slightly unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Candy Cane

"No, it was clearly the father," Zach explained and held the door open to let Zoe, John, Karl and Anton through.

"Really," Zoe said, doubt, suspicion and a little bit of exasperation clear in his voice. "You only ever saw the man for ten minutes maximum and didn't ask him _one question_. How can you be so sure it was him?"

Zach threw her a _look_ , and she sighed, threw her hands into the air and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like _damn seers_ while stalking away towards her personal office. Zach raised an eyebrow and called after her, "I'm not a Seer! I just know stuff!" but he only got the finger as a reply. Exasperatedly, he rolled his eyes and studiously ignored John's wide grin.

"You know, maybe you should let her figure things out from time to time," Anton suggested tentatively. "She hates how ever since you're here, she never gets to figure out a case on her own anymore."

"I understand that, but if I don't say anything, she'll still know that I know the answer. I tried that last time, remember?" Zach stuffed his hands into his pockets, frustrated. Theoretically, he enjoyed working with the FBI, but it was always the same: people found him useful, but didn't like him still because he made them feel useless. It wasn't his fault he was the way he was; what did they want him to do? Just sit at home and fiddle his thumbs or work for AstroTV while murderers got away free because there was not enough evidence to catch them or pin them down?

But of course that wasn't what they wanted either, he knew that. They just wanted him to work somewhere else, not in their department, even if his mere presence guaranteed 100% of solved cases. Here in Zoe's department wasn't the worst team he had ever been part of—or not—though. Karl and Anton and John really liked him; naturally they constantly tried to test him, but it all had a playful, companionable edge to it. They were friends, and they had accepted him and his admittedly weirdness into their circle without reservations.

"Okay, so it was the father. Why?", Karl asked all business, his notebook ready.

Zach shrugged and tried not to think of the pictures he had received from the man. It wasn't like he hadn't seen anything like it before and perhaps worse, but that never made it better. Instead, he concentrated on the cold hard facts, like he always did, and relayed the relevant details to Karl. When he was done, Karl's face was grim, Anton was frowning and John's expression was cold. That was a part of their job none of them enjoyed.

A little subdued, they all got to their desks, not yet discussing how to manage the father to reveal himself, or where and how to find enough evidence on their own if he wouldn't. They would work that out later, after Zoe had gotten over her huff and was open to doing her job again.

"Welllll," Karl finally drawled and leant back in his chair, putting his feet on his table, which earned him a frown from Anton. "What are you guys doing for Christmas?"

"I'll go home," Anton offered eagerly, a wide smile brightening his face. He had a legion of siblings and a whole army of other relatives; they were so many even the three houses in close vicinity belonging to his aunt and uncle and their children, one set of his grandparents and one of his cousins plus family weren't enough to store them all. They all knew this because Anton was always willing, almost eager, to talk about them, and flying all across the country in airplanes left him enough time and them not enough possibility to flee.

"I'll go into a bar and get drunk," John quickly answered before Anton could launch into another tale, his tone dry. Anton's mouth dropped open and he turned around to stare at him. "You won't!", he gasped, and his complete disbelief made them all laugh. Anton blushed and scowled when he realised John had baited him, but he was like an angry kitten; unable to stay annoyed for long (and almost impossible to take serious). Unless, of course, he was holding a weapon trained at you; then, Anton was as fierce and dangerous as his colleagues.

"You, Zach?" Karl asked after John had told him what he'd really do at Christmas (spend it with his wife and her and his family combined).

"Hm." Zach tilted his head. Actually, they hadn't even really talked about it. "I suppose we'll spend all day in pyjamas and eat unhealthy things?" At least that was what they mostly did when they celebrated something, if they didn't eat out.

"You and Chris?", John prodded, and Zach nodded, then blinked in surprise as-

"Okay, that's it," Karl suddenly exploded, leaning forwards in his chair. Zach blinked some more; he had seen this happening only second before, which meant this was as spontaneous a reaction as it could get. He usually actively tried not to see everything that would happen to him—he'd go completely insane within days if he didn't—but he couldn't help it if it came unexpected like that.

"What is what?", he asked, confused. Of course he could take a look, but that'd be terribly boring and also, it tended to confuse people if he answered questions or reacted to accusations before they had been voiced.

"This ominous Chris-person," Karl growled, glaring at him. "Who is she? You always mention her but you never explain a thing!" Behind him, Anton and John nodded empathically, and Zach suddenly realised that they had talked about it, theorised, speculated-

He blinked again and shook his head, reaching for the pen in his breast pocket. He hadn't even been aware he had been so ambiguous. "Chris is my husband," he said, and inwardly burst out giggling when John, Karl and Anton blinked at the same time, the same surprised expressions on their faces. He watched while realisation made its way onto their faces with varying speed, and then Karl cleared his throat.

"Your husband," Anton repeated, then pointedly looked at his ring-less fingers.

Zach shrugged and waved his hands, pen still in one hand. "We don't wear them unless for special occasions." They had other things they wore every day, like necklaces or the pen or keys or belts; Chris had wanted to keep the rings for special occasions so they wouldn't get overcharged with too many memories. It was like his personal photo album, except it was charged with both memories and feelings, and he was the only one who could read it (well, he and everybody else who was psychometric, but there weren't too many out there and none of them would have the gall to touch something as personal as wedding bands unless it was absolutely necessary).

"You're _married_ ," John repeated, both eyebrows raised critically. "To a man."

Zach's eyes narrowed and he took a glance into the future; when he saw that none of his colleagues were homophobic (just surprised), he relaxed again. "Yes," he simply said.

"Well," Karl said demonstratively nonchalant. "I guess that makes Anton and Zoe the only two unwed people of our department, eh?" He threw one pointed glance at Anton, who immediately blushed deep red. It was an open secret that he had a crush on Zoe.

"Wait, wait," John interjected, eyes narrowed. "There wasn't anything in your file."

Zach snorted condescendingly. "You didn't actually think you'd get my real file, did you? Not even with your super hacker skills, not in this life, John. All you managed to acquire was a sock puppet file."

John sputtered in outrage; Zach knew for a fact that his false file was buried deep and hard to find so as not to raise suspicion and to make people believe they had managed to get access to his real file, which was of course utterly impossible. His actual file was hidden very deep and very far away, and it was protected specially, just like the files of the other supernaturally skilled 'consultants' of the FBI. One of them, actually, was delegated to only watch out for those files; if anyone posed a real danger to them, he would make sure he wouldn't succeed, one way or another. JJ's last option was the destroying of those files (by pressing a red button, they all had the giggles over that still); then, the only copies were in an own electrical system that couldn't be accessed via the Internet or satellite at all. It was all pretty impressive, if one actually thought about it, which Zach didn't much, because he was used to it. That real file kept all relevant details about Zach and his life, Chris included, by mutual decision; not because Zach was hiding him, but because it was too dangerous. There had been people who had managed to break into the FBI databanks and get access to personal files and had then went after relatives. And though Zach would be sufficiently warned if that ever happened, he still felt better knowing the possibility was as low as possible. He was allowed a little paranoia, he thought.

"So," he said, raising one eyebrow and looking pointedly at Karl. "How will you spend your Christmas?"

"Nuh-uh, you won't get away from telling us more about Chris," Anton protested before Karl could say anything; it was obvious anyway what he'd do. It'd be some variation of 'I'm going to spend it with my wife and children'.

"Er," Zach made, then grimaced when he realised that they wanted gossip. Classified gossip. "How about this; I'll just tell him to pick me up today and you can see him for yourself. Deal?"

Anton's eyes narrowed. "Only if you tell us how you met, at least. And if we can at least talk to him a little."

"Well." Zach considered that for a moment; most of what they wanted to know he just couldn't tell them, but there were some details he could reveal without endangering anyone, or breaching any security levels. "We met at… college."

"And let me guess," John grimaced. "That was not Carnegie Mellon."

Zach shrugged. "Let me put it like this; people like me don't just suddenly decide they want to work for the FBI, ring them up and get a job."

"There's more like you?"

Trust them to concentrate on what he couldn't talk about instead on what he could. Instead of replying, Zach just stared at them until they finally got it, and he was secretly amused at the variations of a pout each of them wore.

"Shall I ring him up, then?", he asked and was not-secretly amused when he got three eager nods.

*

Zach knew, of course, the moment Chris arrived in the building, but he didn't show. He was a little late because of the traffic and he apologised to Zach even though he knew it wasn't necessary; that's why he wouldn't do it for real, only planned it so Zach would see it.

"If you want to look cool and professional for when my husband arrives," he told John and Karl who were wrestling for the 'best pen in the office' the moment the elevator doors opened up and Chris entered their floor. Through the glass walls he immediately saw what Karl and John were doing, and he also witnessed them scrambling to their office chairs and try to look important and serious. "…then you are too late," Zach finished. Ignoring the scowls he received, he got up and opened the door for Chris, who grinned and greeted him with a kiss. Zach didn't tell him that it was alright that he was late; Chris would know it was because Zach didn't say anything, and besides, why would he be angry at him because of something so trifle?

"So," Zach said, pushing Chris into the room and presenting him to his colleagues. "This is Chris."

Chris raised his hand in the Vulcan salute and said, "I come in peace." John, like the geek he was, totally fell for him that moment, and Anton had fallen for him the moment he had caught on the obvious love with which they greeted each other (he was a not-so-closet romantic). Karl would be a harder nut to crack, and Zoe still hadn't emerged from her office except the one time to bark at someone to get her coffee, only to find Anton already waiting for her with a cup of freshly brewed coffee (thanks to Zach's foresight and, as he had foreseen, that had placated her slightly as well as it had set her off some more).

"Also, I bring candy canes," Chris said after Zach had introduced his colleagues, pulling a bunch out of his pocket. Zoe chose that moment to come out of her office; she blinked at the stranger standing in the middle of the room and offering candy canes to her employees, who looked way too excited for a bunch of serious FBI agents.

"What have I told you, children?", she said on impulse; she'd berate herself for it later, but sometimes she couldn't keep the snark inside. "Do not accept candy from strangers."

"I'm not a stranger!", Chris protested, offering her one, which she took. "I'm totally married in!"

"So?" She raised one eyebrow, choosing not to say anything as Karl, Anton and John divided the remaining candy canes among each other, arguing who got the left over one. "Who are you?"

"That's Chris," Zach explained, stepping up to him. "My husband. Chris, that's Zoe, my boss."

"Better not shake my hand," Chris said apologetically when she offered hers, and she raised her eyebrow again.

"Oh right!", John chimed in, mumbling around the candy cane poking out of his mouth. "You're like Zach, aren't you? But he doesn't need touch to see anything, does that make you stronger or weaker than him?"

It was Chris' turn to raise his eyebrow. "Neither," he said dryly and pulled another, green-white striped candy cane out of his other pocket, which he gave to Zach. "I'm psychometric."

Karl whistled through his teeth, and Zoe tilted his head, a second away from saying "The sex must be _very_ interesting." She managed to rein it in, but it was too late; Zach had heard anyway and he couldn't stop himself from breaking into giggles. He got various inquiring glances and, ignoring Zoe's glare, touched Chris' cheek, concentrating on what he had seen; Chris smirked, but chose not to say anything. He knew about her and Zach's as of yet strained relationship, and teasing the boss with the help of supernatural powers certainly wasn't going to endear either of them to her.

After that, Karl, Anton and John naturally tried to get them to tell them what was going on, but all of them refused, and the only result they got was Zoe rolling her eyes exasperatedly and stalking off home with a "Nice meeting you, Chris, and guys, don't be late for the meeting tomorrow!" as her parting words. Chris and Zach stayed for a while longer, Zach watching carefully while his colleagues not-so-subtly interrogated Chris, trying to get him to tell them embarrassing things about Zach (which he did) and about their 'college' (which he didn't). Zach successfully managed to keep them from asking him to demonstrate his skills in some way by keeping an eye on the future and glaring fiercely at anyone who was about to ask. Once he had to resort to glaring at Anton and then nod towards John, who was sometimes apparently beyond subtlety, so Anton would stamp him on the foot at the last moment. Zach promised himself to bring Anton some cookies or something the next day.

All in all, it went rather well, if not pretty smooth, and as they made their way to the underground parking, Zach slipped his hand into Chris' back pocket (Chris didn't reciprocate because Zach's slacks didn't have any back pockets) and got a kiss on the cheek in return. Chris shot him a bemused glance, then shook his head and said, because of course he had noticed what Zach had been doing and wanted to really say it this time, "Thank you."

Zach only shrugged in return, then grinned and joked "You can blow me in the car."

Chris rolled his eyes, but Zach stumbled when he saw that Chris was actually planning to do it. In great detail, which was his own way of teasing, but.

"I guess I'm driving," Zach said, voice a bit breathless, and Chris smirked.


End file.
